He made the statements below Last Fridaywhen clergymen of the Niger Delta Bishops’Forum visited him in Government House, PortHarcourt Friday as part of their efforts tomediate the political crisis in the state.

Quoting what he said to the bishops,“My lords, I don’t know what to say. Believe me,the only thing I want to say to you is that, and Iwant to be put on record, the wife of thePresident said when my wife came to beg me, Ipushed her away.

“I have never quarrelled with my wife publicly,and I will never quarrel with my wife publicly.So, there is no time I pushed my wife away, andthere is no time I will push my wife away.

“I just want to correct that so that nobody goesaway with the impression that somebody toldmy wife, ‘go and talk to your husband,’ and shecame and I pushed her away.“No, that day, Isimply walked away into a bus and I sat downuntil they finished. So, all I did was go back tothe bus to enable my wife perform her officialfunction of someone who had received thewife of the President and escort her to all theplaces she wanted to go to.”

He continued: “I hope that it (this mediation)will work. Niger Delta monarchs came and noresult came out of it and since you are men ofGod, I hope that this one God will bless it.“I hope so, because that is the same way Ispoke to them (the monarchs) and they said,‘watch out, it will work,’ and they neverreturned, because it never worked.

“There are so many persons who had come tomediate, but nothing came out of it. If it ispeace that everybody wants, I am ready forpeace.

“When you say you are seeking for permission,I am wondering why, because if you did nothave the permission, you would not have goneto see the wife of the President.

“The mere fact that you have seen the wife ofthe President means that you have initiated thepeace move, so you don’t require any furtherapproval than the approval of God that youhave started with.”

The governor also said: “When you spoke withthe wife of the President she spoke publicly,and I concede to her, that she said she is mymother.

“As wife of the President, who is the head ofgovernment and head of the nation, she is mymother, and you expect that as my mother, sheshould be able to protect her son.

“No mother takes away a police commissionerto the detriment of her son, so when next yousee my mother, please tell her that she shouldtry and protect her son.”

On the Okrika story, he explained: “As thegovernor, by protocol, I will receive thePresident and you know that the President isnot just our President, he is the head of thenation.

“But when the wife of the President came, Iwent to receive her at the airport and she sleptin Port Harcourt.

“The next day she came up with a programmethat was not part of the official programme,which was for her people to receive her inOkrika, there was no plan, no protocolarrangement, nothing.

“We just had to quickly arrange protocol to takeher to the place. But to do that, we wanted toalso show her, as part of her own programme,not our programme, the projects we had donein Okrika.

“So, we took her to the Rufus Ada George RingRoad in Okrika, which we started andcompleted and then somewhere, we saw ahealth centre and a primary school and I saidstop, let me show her this health centre.

“We looked at the health centre and we weresatisfied. At the primary school, there werehouses around the primary school too closefor comfort, no football field, no playground,no space at all around the school and I turnedto the wife of the President and said, ‘YourExcellency Ma, we have not finished with thisbuilding, we would buy the housessurrounding the primary school and demolishthem.’

“Once she heard the word ‘demolish,’ the wifeof the President flared up and took themicrophone from me and started all sorts ofdiatribes that I won’t mention here for therespect I have for the office of the wife of thePresident.

“I felt it is wrong to confront the wife of thePresident publicly. When she finished, Iwithdrew and walked into the bus. When wegot to the ground of the reception, which wasnot part of our programme, I came down fromthe bus and went to sit in one of the primaryschools. That is where she said my wife metme.”

He continued: “How did the wife of thePresident know that my wife met me and Ipushed her away when she was supposed tobe in a public ceremony. Was she standing withme and my wife in that primary school and sawme push my wife away?

“So, it is important the public know that thealtercation between myself and the wife of thePresident was as a result of providing servicesto her place, the Okrika people.

“If you build a primary school and the place issurrounded by people who are cooking andselling and buying, that is not a conduciveatmosphere for learning, and we did not saywe would come there with caterpillars anddemolish; we said we would buy the housesfrom the people and pay them off to be able toget a football field and provide playground forthe children and fence off the school, so thatwe can protect them from pedophiles.”